Emails
by Angels Concerning
Summary: Tancreds parents force him into an email correspondence with someone named bird-girl. He's not happy, but over time it becomes more and more enjoyable. But you can't fall in love with someone without meeting them, can you? Eventual EmmaXTancred


Tancred Torrson stormed upstairs looking, if possible, stormier than normal. He was fuming, raging, and all because of some silly little girl.

He paused in the hallway and took a deep breath, quickly reprimanding himself for his arrogance and insolence. He was fairly positive that all in all she wasn't a silly little girl, just someone who his parents had pitied and had forced him into becoming friends with. Well technically they weren't friends yet, Tancred thought coldly. Hopefully they would never be friends, but for now his parents would keep an eye on him and make sure he 'befriended' this girl. He could play their games almost as well as they could, he smiled to himself and ran a hand through his short spiky blond hair.

He continued up the stairs, calmer now, deciding that at least he would be civil to the girl, it wasn't her fault that his parents had decided that he needed to have more friends and she would be the ideal candidate. And he had to admit that it wasn't her fault that he was already upset after having a row with Tracy, and the way his parents asked him had irritated him beyond belief.

They'd bribed, bullied, and blackmailed him into going along with the most stupid of all stupid plans. He wasn't sure why he'd suddenly given in, with bad grace, and now he found himself trudging up the stairs to his room, to his sanctuary, to start up some email correspondence with a girl he'd never met. Next they'd expect him to bake cookies and join the local choir, and he'd never hear the end of it from anyone. Unless... unless he didn't tell them!

That was it, his master plan, laid out for all to see. Just because he had to email this kid, didn't mean he had to tell everyone about it. There it was, a solution. Tancred smiled his famous smirk, the one that made girls swoon and his mates smirk back. He was, he decided, a genius in his own right. Like Van Gough, only not so mad, and considerably better looking.

After all, how long could his parents keep all this up? Checking his mail and making sure that he was polite, after all they only had to slip up once and he was free, as free as a bird. He laughed at that, stupid way of phrasing things he thought to himself.

Still laughing softly to himself Tancred pushed open the door to his room and bounced in, in a considerably better mood now than he had been in earlier. A lighter, bouncer mood that could only have been created by Tancred while he was thinking about himself, a relatively vain child he had been doted on by his parents and that showed in his daily actions and reactions to such things as this.

Mr and Mrs Torrson were hoping that this girl would treat Tancred like anyone else and it might take him down a few pegs, they were also hoping that the two of them might befriend each other as, despite appearances, they were really quite similar.

Tancred walked slower into his room, his footsteps heavy and reluctant. Suddenly all the thoughts and planning didn't seem like such a good idea, maybe this girl would be mean to him and his parents wouldn't recognise it. After all, not everyone was exactly friendly to Tancred and his little group, what if she didn't accept him. Then he really wouldn't live down the humiliation. It would be just too embarrassing.

Tancred sighed, undecided on his course of action so settled for looking around the room. If most mothers could see Tancred's bedroom at this moment in time they would have thrown the hissy fit of the century. In fact most people would have been shocked by the state of Tancred's bedroom. Maybe except his closest friends, after all they say a bedroom shows what a person is like and Tancred's was, in the nicest way possible, a tip.

The walls, at one point they had been painted a pale blue, had faded and had large cracks in them, there were also massive chunks of plaster missing which showed the wooden frame of the house beneath them. The floor was bare floorboards, which had been varnished at one point but now, like the walls, bore signs of having lived too long in the Tancred's company. There were various posters tacked up to the wall, which showed the years of abuse but still hung together hiding some of the worst cracks from the offending eyes of anyone entering the room. His bed which he currently perched on was old and worn and recently repaired. Clothes and other such objects, including books and water bottles and the whole works, lay scattered around the room, lying where he'd left them after a recent temper outburst. The only thing untouched by his temperamental hand was the computer dumped on a desk on the far side of the room. It wasn't new, of course, the Torrsons knew better than to try and give Tancred something new, it was always destroyed relatively quickly.

Tancred wondered if he'd get bonus points for tidying up his room while he waited for the computer to load. He decided he might as well do it all anyway after all it wasn't like the room could get any messier.

Tancred hopped up and quickly started up the computer, he began gathering all his clothes and put them in the wash and tidied his books. Within the ten minutes the computer took to load Tancred had pretty much cleared the floor, it wasn't that he enjoyed the task, it was more like he was a fast person and once he made up his mind on something, he rarely went back on it.

Tancred sighed softly, almost docile in his defeat, before turning towards the dreaded computer. It felt like his fate was looming, hanging in the balance. And somehow by emailing this girl he'd be breaking out of his comfort zone and he might begin to question, and that wasn't allowed at Bloor's.

There's nothing you can distract yourself with now Tanc, he thought to himself as he sat down in the now meticulous room and clicked on the internet logo. His room was now, tidy and neat, looking as if his cleaner had whipped through at some inhumane speed and performed in an exceptionally short period of time a miracle of sorts.

The internet didn't seem to take long enough to load in Tancred's eyes; surely it took longer than that. Feeling strongly as if impending doom was coming his way shortly, Tancred clicked on the sign that would take him to his emails. He hadn't been on his email in a while and a few emails had built up, most were junk he deleted right away, a couple held his interest a little longer and he replied to the one from his mum asking when he was going to email this girl, by saying that he was about to email her right now. That would get her off his back for a while.

Tancred twisted slightly to get a look at the Post-It with the girls email written on it; according to this her name was bird-girl. Tancred almost let out a snort until he remembered that his name was Thorsdecendent, he'd received more than a few nasty emails telling him he was:

Deranged

Selfish

And/ Or a loser.

He was a bit annoyed about that, he hadn't picked his name, his dad had. When he'd complained about this, his dad had patted him on the shoulder and said, "Son, I love you very much. But there are times where you are a complete and utter waste of space and a wimp. And right now is one of those times. Just laugh at them kid and remember beggars can't be choosers."

Tancred sighed, his dad's latest approach was tough love. It just annoyed and upset everyone. And when Tancred thought everyone, he meant everyone.

Tancred clicked on new contact and added the girl, not her name or anything because that would make it seem like he wanted to do this, so he added just her email. He wondered about keeping it anonymous so as to scare her, but then he would have to know her. And he didn't, he didn't even know her name. Dragging the mouse and clicking on compose new Tancred knew that he'd have to fight himself not to be nasty to this girl.

Taking a deep breath he began to type:

_Hey there bird-girl,_

_Apparently our parents know each other and they wish for us to become friends. I'm afraid I can't recall having ever met you, but I'm sure we could start again if we have. So I'll go first, how about I tell you a little about me. _

_Alrighty, here goes, my name's Tancred and I'm fourteen. I go to a specialist school where I focus on art. I like music and animals as well, and my favourite thing is the weather. It sounds weird but I like it. I hate acting, and people's approach to tough love. What about you?_

_How about some quick questions to get us started in our quest to become friends, okay firstly, what's your favourite movie? Least favourite movie? Favourite snack and least favourite? How old are you? And who's the person you try and be like most in the world?_

_I dunno, how does that all sound to you?_

_Sorry about all the questions, didn't really know what else to say ___

_Best wishes (apparently that's polite to put)_

_Tancred_

Tancred sighed and read it through quickly, deciding that it was acceptable he clicked sent and sent it off to bird-girl. Whoever she was, where-ever she was.

"Tancred, tea," his mum called from downstairs. Nothing ever fazed her, he was fairly certain of that. But as his stomach rumbled he realised he was hungry and stopped thinking everything through so much and just shot off downstairs.

Tancred quickly gobbled down his tea of ham sandwiches and cold pizza told his mum how lovely it was and kissed her on the cheek before shooting back upstairs to start on his homework. He had French and Geography to do tonight and he was fairly certain he'd struggle to finish, they weren't his strongest two subjects but he still gave them as much as he could. But still his mind searched for a distraction and it came in the tiny dinging sound.

Tancred's eyes snapped up and he looked around the room confused before realising he'd left his computer on, he leant over on his desk and twitched the mouse and watched apprehensively as the desktop reappeared and the screen saver disappeared. In the bottom right hand corner was a tiny square that had popped up saying, _you've got mail!_


End file.
